Biography

Marion Henry is a Franco-European visual artist and designer whose multidisciplinary practice explores the intersections between language, technology and collective memory.

Marion Henry

Marion Henry is a multimedia artist and writer whose work dwells at the intersections of memory, space and narrative. Over the past decade, she has developed a practice that weaves together photography, installation, text and sound to interrogate the hidden histories embedded in the built environment. Trained in both fine art and literature, Marion holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA in Contemporary Literature from the University of Paris–Sorbonne.

Her photographic series “Forgotten Realms” (2022) documented derelict industrial sites across Europe, pairing stark, high-contrast imagery with poetic vignettes that imagine the lives once intertwined with these places. Building on this work, Marion’s installation “Ghost Frames” (2023) projected archival fragments onto derelict façades in situ, inviting viewers to step into a blurred threshold between past and present. Her writing—published in Aperture, Frieze, and Cabinet Magazine—bridges critical theory and lyrical essay, reflecting her conviction that visual and verbal languages can open new portals into forgotten narratives.

Marion’s commitment to research-based projects has taken her to residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2021), the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (2019), and the Delfina Foundation in London (2018). She has exhibited internationally at venues including the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, and the Kunstverein Freiburg. In 2024 she was shortlisted for the Pascal Kunz Prize for Emerging Photographers, and her work is held in the permanent collections of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Tate Photography Fund.

In her studio practice, Marion often begins with archival research—thumbing through municipal records, excavating oral histories, or scouring personal family albums—and then stages site visits where she photographs, records ambient sound, and gathers found objects. These fragments are stitched together into immersive worlds that blur documentary and fiction, inviting audiences to linger in the tensions between what remains and what has been lost. Whether through a published essay, a gallery installation, or a public projection, Marion Henry’s artistry continually probes how spaces bear witness to human experience—and how we, in turn, inhabit their echoes.

Publications

  • “Marion Henry: The Art of Connection”, Artforum, June 2025
  • “Mapping Invisible Cities”, catalogue essay for Crossroads, New Museum Publications, May 2024
  • “Interview with Marion Henry”, Designboom, April 2025
  • “Digital Traces”, IDN Magazine, December 2023

Residencies

  • 2024 – Smashing Studio Residency, London, UK
  • 2023 – Casa Blanc Artist-in-Residence, Barcelona, Spain
  • 2022 – Atelier Nord Fellowship, Oslo, Norway

Exhibitions

  • 2025 – “ola mundo” (solo), Smashing Gallery, London, UK
  • 2025 – “hola mundo” (solo), Instituto Arte, Madrid, Spain
  • 2024 – “Crossroads” (group), New Museum, New York, USA
  • 2023 – “Soft Protocols” (group), Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
  • 2020 – test

Participations

  • 2025 – Artist talk at Creative Futures Symposium, Berlin, Germany
  • 2024 – Panelist, Global Design Forum, Tokyo, Japan
  • 2023 – Workshop leader, Mapping Memory Conference, Montreal, Canada
  • 2022 – Guest critic, Eindhoven School of Art, Netherlands